The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications will host a symposium titled ‘When Games Turn Grim: Can Media Cover Sports Scandals Responsibly?’ on Thursday to examine the media’s coverage of notorious sports scandals.

The symposium will take place in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The daylong symposium will include four panel sessions on the specific topics of journalism, public relations, ethics and overall coverage of the recent sport scandals that occurred at Syracuse University and Pennsylvania State University, according to a Feb. 14 SU News release.

‘As a top journalism school, we felt it was our obligation to look at what was going on in terms of sports scandals,’ said Joel Kaplan, a communications law professor at Newhouse.

Steve Davis, chair of the newspaper and online journalism department at Newhouse, said in the release the symposium will reflect on the media’s response to these events, both the negative and the positive.

The first portion of the symposium will include a variety of journalists from different backgrounds who have experience in similar sports scandal-related stories. This panel, titled ‘The Journalists,’ will be moderated by Kaplan.

Kaplan said the symposium was also a useful tool in attracting alumni such as Pete Thamel, a 1999 SU alumnus and college sports reporter with The New York Times. Other panelists include Michael J. Connor, executive editor at The Post-Standard; Jeff D’Alessio, assistant to the CEO of Sporting News; and Vince Doria, senior vice president and director of news at ESPN.

David Saunders, a freshman aerospace engineering major, said he believes the symposium is definitely an interesting topic of conversation, especially with the trials concerning both the Penn State and SU scandals starting soon.

‘I think it was overexaggerated to an extent,’ Saunders said. ‘Some of the accusations made by the media in editorials on the handling were unfair attacks on Syracuse personally.’

The panel will feature speakers with leadership experience in the field of advocacy in areas such as violence and sexual abuse. Katherine Redmond, founder of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, and Robert Hoatson, president and co-founder of Road to Recovery, will both be sitting on ‘The Advocates’ panel.

Shortly afterward, ‘The PR Professionals’ will focus on the fine lines between client loyalty and the rights of the accusers, according to the release. This panel includes Leland Bassett, chairman and CEO of Bassett & Bassett Inc.; Keith Burton, president of Insidegde; and Gary Grates, 1999 alumnus and principal of WCG Worldwide.

The final panel centers around the ethics involved in journalism and how big of a role ethics played in the coverage of the Jerry Sandusky and Fine stories. David Rubin, professor and dean emeritus of Newhouse; Tom Rosenstiel, director and founder of the Project for Excellence in Journalism; and Robert Steele, professor and director of the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University, will comprise the smallest panel of the day, ‘The Ethicists.’

Each panel will be followed by a Q-and-A session, which will allow audience members to ask specific questions to panelists.

Kaplan said he expects a large audience, even if the symposium is scheduled for the middle of the week, because the SU scandal affected so many in the community.

Saunders said he is interested in discussing how the media handled the coverage of the Penn State and SU scandals.

Said Saunders: ‘Just the amount of coverage they dedicated to it in general was overblown.’

jbundy@syr.edu 

Published on February 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Jen: jbundy@syr.edu